Packaging lines using aseptic technology are already known, wherein the various operations take place in a controlled contamination environment, so that the bottled products can be stored for a prolonged period of time and have chemical/physical and organoleptic stability even at room temperature.
In the first installations containers were produced in non-aseptic apparatuses and subsequently the moulded containers were transferred into a cleanroom housing at least the filling machine and the capping machine.
Aside from differences in design, a “conventional” aseptic bottling line envisages:                moulding the container starting with a parison made of a thermoplastic material;        chemical sterilisation of the moulded container;        rinsing, filling and capping of the filled container, to be performed within a cleanroom.        
The cleanroom is a controlled contamination room which contains all the filling apparatus, including both the process zones in which the containers are effectively filled/capped, and the auxiliary zones in which the movement means of the filling machine/capping machine operates.
The main disadvantage of the cleanroom is therefore represented by its substantial volume, therefore lengthy and expensive sterilisation procedures are required. There is also considerable wastage of operating fluids, for example sanitisation liquids and sterile air, and wear phenomena, for example, of the filters needed to purify the air adapted to generate overpressure within the cleanroom so as to prevent the entry of contaminants from the external environment.
A further disadvantage of the use of a cleanroom regards the difficulty in performing format change, maintenance or machine part adjustment operations, due to the risk of contamination that such operations imply. Access to the cleanroom by an operator is therefore also particularly critical.
The evolution of aseptic technology has gone in the direction of reducing the volumes to be kept sterile.
A modern concept of an aseptic bottling line therefore envisages:                sterilisation of the parison using chemical agents or radiation sterilisation;        “aseptic” moulding of the container starting from the sterilized parison;        filling and capping of the filled container, to be carried out in a sterile environment.        
In this regard, the Applicant has developed a moulding apparatus for moulding under aseptic conditions, in which the moulding rotary carousel is protected by an isolator suitable for defining a controlled-contamination environment, and the movement means for moving the carousel and moulds is located outside of said isolator (see European patent EP2246176).
The preliminary sterilisation stage involves all devices that come into contact with the parison subjected to moulding by stretch-blowing, including for example the gripping members, the stretching rod and the blown air circuit. The Applicant has thus developed ad hoc solutions for the stretching rod (see European Patent no. EP2340157) and for the blown air circuit (European patent application no. EP 26443142).
In this way, the Applicant succeeded in developing a completely aseptic blowing machine and a bottling line wherein the process zone of each operating unit (e.g. filling machine and capping machine) is protected by a dedicated microbiological isolator, from which the movement and handling means of parisons/containers is excluded (see European patent EP2279850).
The main drawback of this solution clearly lies in the substantial structural complexity, the still considerable dimensions of the sterile zones (even if they are restricted and shaped around the operating units) and the difficulty to maintain sterile conditions within the isolators.
Furthermore, not all the manual procedures required during operation (e.g. removal of obstacles) can be performed with the use of handling gloves: in some cases, it may still be necessary to open the isolator access door, resulting in the loss of sterile conditions. Upon completion of the procedure, a sterile environment must be restored, resulting in an evident loss of time due to downtime of the line.
Still from this point of view, the format change operations are also long and not very practical.
Proceeding with the reduction of the volumes to be sterilised and the time necessary for performing the sterilisation procedures we find the solution described in document EP1357081, in relation to a filling machine in which the isolator has a toroidal extension conformed to cover the zones around the neck of the containers.
This configuration is a response to the brilliant intuition only to sterilise the surfaces of containers intended to come into contact with the filling product, i.e. the internal surfaces of containers or those near the opening, but excluding the external surfaces of the body of the containers.
However, this solution, known in the sector as a “neck-ring isolator” requires the provision of a further confinement of the body-zones of containers in order to prevent dispersions of the sterilising agents into the environment external to the toroidal isolator, with consequent risks to the health of the operators.
Therefore, the neck-ring isolator consists of a single volume in which the necks of containers transit which, however, also contains auxiliary members and elements, such as parts of transfer stars.
Therefore, even moving over to “neck-ring isolator” architecture, the problems of maintaining and/or restoring sterility remain.